I wouldn’t exactly call it an anniversary, since neither one of us really remembers exactly when it happened. I’m pretty sure, though, that it was February 27 or 28, 1994.
Days prior, I broke up with my high school boyfriend. He was still back home in his senior year of high school while I was a college freshman. We made it through the first semester, but I was becoming a different person.
I never cheated on high school boyfriend, but we were growing apart. Or, rather, I was. I felt terrible; I had never been the dumper before, I’d always been dumped. But, it had to be done.
Anyway, I suppose we could say this photo, taken December 1993, is foreshadowing. I was still 18 here, and he was almost 20.
There was always something between us. It just waited for the right moment.
Anyway, those early days weren’t easy. That boy was stupid and afraid, and broke up with me a few times during the first two years.
I really couldn’t tell you if we were together or not in the above picture, probably taken spring 1994. We always remained friends. And I remained hopeful that it wasn’t truly over.
The turmoil ended when we got back together for good in October 1995. He graduated in 1996, but I still had another year to go.
The photo above was taken after his graduation.
He got a job and stayed at home with his Mom (two-hour drive from campus) to wait out my senior year.
Above, we are are at a party on campus in 1997. He was able to visit often, even though his cousin/mechanic told him the wheel on his 1988 Ford Escort could fall off at any time!
It didn’t fall off, and his mom sold the car for a couple hundred dollars after he moved down to the DC area. He moved a couple months before I graduated and stayed with friends. We found an apartment in a suburb in Maryland when I was visiting / on an interview. I got the job, too.
We lived in that one-bedroom apartment for a little over a year. When we needed more space, we moved into a two-bedroom apartment in DC.
Above is a 1999 photo taken on our first trip to Hatteras Island. We were invited to join one of my co-workers and her friends/family. While not with the same group, we’ve been going ever since!
While living in DC, we went out to happy hours at least weekly. It was nice to be able to stumble home! It was after one of those walks back to our apartment that he asked me to marry him. I wasn’t expecting that at all.
He didn’t have a ring, since he figured I’d probably want to pick that out. I suppose had we discussed marriage, he might have known what I wanted, but it certainly wouldn’t have been such a surprise!
The photo above, from 2000, was taken the night we announced our engagement to our friends. It was convenient that one of them brought a camera to happy hour!
We were engaged for about a year. Here’s an outtake from our engagement photos, from 2001:
A few months after the wedding, we bought our house and moved again, back to Maryland (though, considerably farther from DC!).
Where we lived happily ever after …
2002. My face is kind weird in this pic, but I wanted to include evidence of his hillbilly stage!
2005. On top of a butte in Eugene, Oregon.
2007, at a friend’s wedding.
